Laura Haskell and Eric Pereira had given up on ever finding the diamond engagement ring that slipped off her finger into Lake Erie's depths earlier this summer.

One can only imagine their relief when the pair found out that two members of the Chatham-Kent Metal Detecting Club - Garry Schnekenburger and Rick Pearce - actually found the ring, worth several thousand dollars, after it sat buried in the lake bottom for a month.

This saga began Aug. 1, when Haskell, 26, was playing catch in Lake Erie near Wildwood Campground. The ball hit her hand, she said, knocking the ring off into the water. To make matters worse, the windy weather was creating good-sized waves on the lake, and the ring quickly disappeared from sight.

Haskell's frantic screams quickly drew the attention of several bystanders. Soon a crowd of about 20 people were scouring the area where the ring was last seen.

"I think we were out there searching the bottom of the lake for at least four hours," she said.

Although there are plenty of other rings in the world, this was the one Pereira had slipped on Haskell's finger when he asked her to be his wife.

"It wasn't the monetary value," she said. "It was the sentimental value of it."

Pereira thought it was a joke at first as a ploy to get him to go into the water.

But, to his dismay, it wasn't.

He was contemplating getting another engagement ring for his bride-to-be before their December 29 wedding date.

But, Haskell said, she was prepared to have just a wedding band.

However, a turn of events saw Julie Pollard, C-K metal detecting club president, at a friend's house where a deck was being built. Her friend asked her to bring her metal detector to find dropped screws.

As luck would have it, one of the guys working on deck happened to be at the beach when Haskell's ring went into the water, and told her about the missing ring. Pollard said she and Pearce went to the spot. Pearce looked for about 90 minutes, but the waves made it difficult. He would return another time on his own, but no luck.

The incident was announced to the club, along with details about where the ring was lost.

Last Saturday, Pearce and Schnekenburger decided to try to find the ring.

They were in about three feet of water when Schnekenburger said he heard a "great sounding tone" from the machine.

He bent over, scooped, and came up with the ring.

Schnekenburger said his wife joked before he left to bring her back a gold ring.

"I felt better knowing I found it for this young lady," he said. "I enjoyed being able to give it back.

"I had tears in my eyes just thinking about it."

Pearce said it was likely a good thing that a lot of people looking for the ring initially, as that probably pushed it into the lake bottom.

Haskell said, "I never expected if someone did find it, that it would ever come back to me."

She was stuck in gridlock traffic in downtown Toronto with her sister, Tara Haskell, when she got a call that her ring was found.

When she screamed, Haskell said her sister immediately "thought something terrible had happened."

Soon they were both shouting for joy and attracting strange looks from other drivers.

It was also huge relief for Pereira, who said, "I was ecstatic . . . I could sleep again."

He added it was one of his best days, and felt like he had won the lottery.

However, he hadn't actually seen the ring, yet.

"I didn't want to get too excited," he said.

But when Schnekenburger showed it to him, Pereira said, "I knew right away that was it," adding he gave both Schnekenburger and Pearce a big hug.